In roll-making machines of the type in which the roll is formed by winding a paper web on a core as the roll rests upon a drum along which the paper web is supplied to the roll in formation, i.e. in roll-making and coiling stations, it is necessary from time to time to apply a new leading end of the paper web to the underside of the drum so that by suction, the leading end of the paper web is conducted to the roll-forming station.
This need arises, for example, when a supply roll delivering the paper web to an upstream end of the web guide means must be changed and whenever there is a breakage in the web being fed to the roll-forming location or some other discontinuity in the feed of the paper web to the roll-forming station. In the past, the process of drawing the leading end of the new web to the roll-forming drum and applying the leading end to the underside of that drum has been time-consuming and labor intensive.
For the most part, the roll-forming drum in such machines is provided above a floor below which the paper guide path is provided. The introduction of a new paper web may require a service person in the below-floor spaces which are not readily accessible and generally do not permit such service personnel to stand erect, so that the leading end of the web can be manually fed upwardly through an opening in the floor to the underside of the drum and to thread the paper web through a longitudinal paper-slitting arrangement which may be provided to subdivide the web transversely into a plurality of strips each of which is to be wound in a respective roll on the drum. The blades of the longitudinal paper slitter generally can only be separated with a limited stroke and thus the operation involves rather delicate manipulation.
After the paper web is passed through the slitter, it is applied to the underside of the drum which, as previously indicated, may be perforated and under suction so that the drum can entrain the paper web, now formed into a plurality of strips, to the roll-forming locations.
A roll-making drum to which the web is supplied from below is described in German patent document DE-PS No. 31 02 894.
To facilitate the feeding of the leading end of a web to the region beneath the paper-roll-making machine drum, also referred to the herein as a support drum, it has been proposed in German patent document DE-OS No. 31 17 094 to direct the leading end of the web by compressed air with the aid of a raisable and lowerable web-feed table, against the underside of the support drum. This approach has, however, been found to be unsatisfactory.